SGU Episode 3

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SGU Episode 3
7th June 2005
(brief caption for the episode icon)
SGU 2                      SGU 4
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
B: Bob Novella
P: Perry DeAngelis
Guest
M: Massimo Pigliucci
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Introduction

S: Hello and welcome to The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe. Today is June 7th, 2005. This is your host, Steven Novella, President of the New England Skeptical Society. With me this week are Perry DeAngelis –

P: Hello, everybody.

S: – and Bob Novella.

B: Good-evening.

S: We have a special guest this week, Massimo Pigliucci, who i will introduce in a moment. But, first, some follow-up from our discussion last week.

News Items

Smithsonian ID Fiasco Follow-Up ()

The Washington Post: Smithsonian Distances Itself From Controversial Film

S: Last week we talked about what is now being known as the Smithsonian Institution ID Fiasco. For those of you who listened, the Smithsonian Institution agreed to co-sponsor a film, which was being promoted by the Discovery Institute, which is an Intelligent Design–Creationism proponent; the film was called –

P: Shocking lack of judgment.

S: Shocking. Shocking lack –

P: Shocking.

S: of judgment and, we agreed, was extremely naïve.

B: And, see, they're more than just proponents. I mean, they are the major arm –

S: Yes.

B: – of the movement.

S: That's correct. They exist to promote Intelligent Design Creationism. The film was 'The Privileged Planet: The Search for Design in the Universe', or 'Purpose in the Universe'. As in response to the Smithsonian Institution's plan there was a backlash of criticism from the scientific and skeptical communities –

P: Shocked.

S: – which has happened in many cases, as we have discussed in the past, when school boards or institutions fall prey to either Creationism or Intelligent Design or– are being used for this purpose, the blogosphere jumps on it, the cyberspace scientific and skeptical community can react almost instantaneously. Mr. Randall Kremer, who was the public affairs agent for the Smithsonian Institute, was flooded with emails. They were essentially embarrassed out of co-sponsoring the film, which is, you know, a minor victory for skeptical activism.

B: I mean, they should have been embarrassed.

S: They should've been embarrassed. Here i'm going to read to you the email that i personally sent to Mr. Kremer –

B: – which i think just put it over the edge.

S: Yes.

B: That was the straw that made them cave.

S: Clearly it was instrumental –

B: No doubt.

S: – in this victory.

P: No doubt.

S: – which is probably representative of the kind of scientific backlash they received. So here's the email:

Mr. Kremer, As a scientist and educator i was very dismayed to hear that the prestigious Smithsonian Institution was co-sponsoring the screening of a film promoting the pseudoscience of intelligent design, 'The Privileged Planet: The Search for Purpose in the Universe'. I strongly urge you to reconsider this. The Discovery Institute is a pseudoscientific organization dedicated to promoting religious belief as science. Intelligent Design is a thinly-veiled religious belief system designed deliberately to remove any overt religious references from what is otherwise classic Creationism. Its purpose is to infiltrate institutions like SI in order to convince the public that it has scientific credentials. Do not be so naïve, as unfortunately others before you have, in thinking that screening this film at SI will not be used by the Discovery Institute and other promoters of ID as scientific authoritative endorsement of ID. In fact, they are already doing so. You have stated that SI policy is such that events of a religious or partisan political nature are not permitted. I would add to that list egregious pseudoscience. Even if you accept the propaganda that ID is not a religious belief, you must acknowledge the consensus opinion of the scientific community that it is simply not science. Do not let SI be exploited to promote an anti-scientific agenda.

P: Hear, hear.

S: And, again, feedback like that, you know, within days forced, embarrassed the Smithsonian Institutiton –

P: He must've got thousands of those.

S: Must've gotten thousands. I hope so. I mean, we and the New England Skeptical Society did our part in spreading the word and encouraging people to write similar emails.

P: And the JREF, with their financial offer –

S: Yeah, well, Randi only $20,000 to SI to not show the film. They did not accept his offer, and in fact they declined to accept the $16,000 from the Discovery Institute. They're getting no money.

B: Well, i –

S: They're showing the film anyway.

B: Steve, i don't think they actually declined to accept it. I think they gave it back.

S: Yes, fine.

P: My understanding was that they returned it.

S: They returned the 16,000 and they removed their co-sponsorship of the film, so – The film is still being screened, you know, at a private function in the Smithsonian Institute, but it's not being sponsored, they're not accepting any funds from them, and clearly the imprimatur, the validation, of a prestigious scientific institution like the Smithsonian Institute has been removed from this film and from the Discovery Institute.

P: So it's 90% good.

S: And i think that they'll be more wary the next time. The real victory here is that this will not happen again. Hopefully.

P: What were they thinking?

S: What were they thinking?

P: Yeah. It's crazy. Crazy.

S: Just incredible.

Science or Fiction (5:09)

S: We are going to also introduce a new segment this week, a segment called "Science or Fiction". In this segment, i am going to challenge my panel of skeptics. I have three news items—scientific breakthroughs, scientific news items—from the past week. I'm going to read you a brief summary of each of those items. The trick is that one of these items is not real. One of these items is fiction. The other two are genuine scientific breakthroughs, one is fiction. The challenge for you two this week is to try to decide which one is the fake one.

P: Mere child's play.

S: You have to bring all of your skeptical tools to bear to see if you can sniff out the fake. You can make your comments about each one as i present them, but wait until i've stated all three before you make your guess as to which one is fake. Are you ready?

B: Mm-hmm.

P: Sure.

S: Let's play.

B: Go for it.

S: Item number one: Dolphins have been observed not only using tools, but also teaching tool use to their children. This is the first example of cultural tool use in a non-primate species. That's item number one. Item number two: Astronomers have discovered an Earth-like planet orbiting a nearby star, 50 light years from Earth. This is the first Earth-sized planet discovered around another star, and astronomers say there are indications that the planet has an atmosphere. This is the best candidate so far for extraterrestrial life.

P: How far?

S: It's about 50 light years from our system.

P: All right.

S: Item number three: French scientists have discovered a way to keep water from freezing at hundreds of degrees below zero—near absolute zero. Those are your three items.

B: Wow. I've got problems with all of them.

S: I know. That's why they were chosen.

B: OK, the dolphins. You said one thing at the end, though, that piqued my interest there. You said that it's the first non-primate species to use tools?

S: Well, cultural tool use—in other words, they're – it's not something that's just innate. They're actually teaching this to their children.

B: OK. 'Cause when you said that, i thought of – 'cause i know there are birds that'll actually use tools to –

S: There are. And there're some birds that have some problem-solving skills.

B: Right.

S: But this is – they're actually –

B: It's cultural. There's actually a cultural thing.

S: They were observed teaching the tool use, yes.

B: OK, now i – of course, since they don't have any hands or opposable thumbs, i assume they're not using their flippers. It would have to be their mouth. So maybe somehow they're using their mouth to manipulate an object they find on the sea floor. I don't think that's –

P: As for me, i'm gonna say that the first one is the truth. I recently, within the last week, saw a special on the Discovery Channel, you know, it showed dolphins being very sophisticated, particularly something that they showed that really struck me was how two males would team up for a long time and keep a female hostage between the two of them. They'd swim around with her, never let her get very far from them –

B: I've heard of that.

P: – for months –

B: Months?

P: – months, they would keep her, so that she would only mate with them.

S: They're smart critters. They're vey smart critters.

P: She'd try to get away, they'd attack her and really keep her corralled.

B: Now –

P: Anyway, it sounds accurate to me.

B: The second one has got to be false. I mean, we simply are not at the –

P: Yeah, it's too far.

B: No, not actually.

P: To see an atmosphere?

B: Fifty light years is not too far. It's the actual size that can't be right. Earth-sized planets we simply don't have the technology yet to ascertain the – to determine or to find planets that are Earth-sized. Typically, the only things we find are bigger than actually Jupiter.

P: Yeah.

B: So we're talking thousands and thousands of times bigger than the Earth.

P: He went beyond that, too, Bob. He said that they had evidence that there was an atmosphere on it.

B: Well, that's possible. I mean, you could –

P: Not that size.

B: Well, using something –

S: All it requires is spectroscopic analysis –

B: Right.

S: – of the light coming from the atmosphere.

B: Spectroscopy would tell you if there were certain elements in the atmosphere. That's not what concerns me. It's the size, and that's just too small. We haven't – we're not close to detecting Earth-sized –

P: That one sounds false to me.

B: We will get there, though. We'll get there, but we're not there yet. It doesn't matter what technique they're using. They could be using the gravitational disturbance of the parent star caused by the planet. Still, Earth-sized planets are still too small to create a nudge that's detectable yet.

S: Interesting.

P: Now, the last one, about the water, i mean –

B: Let me make one more comment about the second one. The other technique is actually—and it was recently perfected—they've actually– they claim to have discovered a planet that was the first planet discovered purely from the reflected light of the parent star, which was quite an achievement. But, still, that was a huge planet, a huge amount of light relatively speaking.

S: So you don't think we're ready for this breakthrough yet.

B: No, not yet. We will definitely get there, and maybe relatively soon. Maybe ten years, six years, but i've heard nothing approaching Earth-sized yet. And, the third one. Perry, did you want to comment on the water?

P: I was simply saying that it's impressive, but it simply seems more reasonable. Not precisely sure how you'd go about doing it.

S: Even though they were French scientists?

(laughter)

P: Yeah, well, we're suspending our disbelief for the moment.

B: At what temperature did you say, Steve? You mentioned near absolute zero.

P:

S: Single digits.

B: Single degrees near absolute zero?

S: Yeah. Eight degrees was, i think, the figure given.

P: That's crazy.

B: That's liquid? Liquid water? I don't – no, i don't see that happening. No.

P: You gotta choose between the two of them.

B: I know. That's just too damn cold. I mean, even, you know, moving water can get colder than 32 by the fact that it's moving, will lower the freezing temperature a little bit, but to that degree? Maybe there's some sort of state that can get water into that makes it somewhat immune to freezing, but i can't imagine what that might be. Let's see. What – how could they – what could they possibly do to liquid water to maintain that state?

P:

B: – even that close –

P: Moving at incredibly high speed?

S: So it's time to cast your votes.

B: OK. By definition –

P: I'm still – i still think number two is less reasonable.

S: Perry votes for number two, the Earth-sized planet around another star. Bob?

B: As what, true? Science or fiction?

S: As the fake one. As the fiction.

P: As the fiction.

B: Now, there's two fiction. Aren't there two fiction?

S: No, there's one fiction. There's two are real.

P: Right.

B: I could have sworn you said one real, two fiction.

P: Come on, Bob.

S: Two are science, one is fiction.

P: These rules are not complicated.

B: OK. Then, well, it's gotta be two. Two is definitely fiction.

S: So you both cast your vote for two.

P: Correct.

B: Too small.

S: OK. Well, you are both good skeptics. You got the correct answer.

P:

S:

P: Now, how did the scientist do that with the water?

B: I'm dying to know.

S: Well, we'll take them in order. Let's take them in order. A group of dolphins living off the coast of Australia teach their offspring to use their snouts with sponges while foraging for food in the sea floor. So, they actually put sponges on their noses to protect their – to protect them while foraging on the sea floor. Then they caught –

B: How do they do this?

S: They stick it on there. And then they caught mothers teaching this to their children.

P: Wow. Wow.

B: That's fascinating. So

S: You were right. Your intuition was right. It was something – they use their snout, not their flippers.

P:

B: Absolutely. So, if they get, like, a red sponge and stick it to their nose, they look kind of like clownfish? Is that how it works?

S: I guess so.

P: Badum-bum.

S: This is by Krutson and colleagues. They analyzed thirteen, what they're calling "spongers", and 172 non-spongers, and concluded that the practice seems to be passed along family lines, primarily from mothers to daughters for some reason.

B: That's very believable. I mean, they're just so intelligent.

P: Women do most of the work in the animal kingdom. That's why.

B: It seems very likely that they improvised some sort of tool use wit their snouts. OK. Makes sense.

S: You're absolutely right with number two. I think that that is eventually going to be a headline –

P: Right.

S: – but we're just a few years too early.

B: Mm-hmm.

S: But Bob is just too up-to-date on the planet-hunting state of the art.

P: Hey, hey! I guessed it, too.

S: You did! But Bob had the details. It's true. You both sniffed that one out.

P: Thank you.

B: Water me! Come on, tell me,

S: OK. Here's the headline. You're gonna love it. "Nanotube water doesn't freeze, even at hundreds of degrees below zero."

B: Wow.

S: So, what French scientists have done is, they've – they're using the carbon nanotubes as a template, and the water molecules filling these tubes take on a similar structure, where the hydrogen and oxygen atoms form a lattice-like bond, and they – it will not freeze. It will continue to flow through this tube, even down to near-absolute temperatures.

B: That's fascinating.

P: Hum.

B: My god. It changes the molecular arrangement of the water?

S: Yeah, it actually changes the molecular arrangement of the water.

B: But can you still consider it liquid water, though?

S: You know, it's – that's a good question. I didn't say it remained a liquid. I said it didn't freeze.

B: A-ha! OK.

P: True.

S: It may actually be another state of water.

B: That makes more sense.

S: It may not technically be the same state as, you know, normal liquid water.

P: It's plasmic?

S: It's not a plasma.

B: No.

S: I mean, it's a new – and i don't know if they're actually going to call it a new phase, but it definitely is a new state that water is in. And it is more like liquid than like ice. It certainly does not form ice crystals. It stays in this lattice formation and does not, you know, freeze into the normal crystalline structure that water ice has.

B: Yeah. It definitely doesn't sound like any of the other states of matter that could account for that. I mean, you couldn't – it doesn't sound liquid to me, it doesn't sound – maybe it's a different type of solid. It's definitely not the other types, like plasma, that Perry mentioned, or some of the more exotic ones, the Bose–Einstein condensates and the fermionic condensates. It can't be that, either. So, maybe it's a new type of solid for water. OK.

P: Interesting as heck.

S: Very interesting. It remains to be seen what the applications of this would be, but these nanotubes technology is very, very new and very, very active area of research, and this is just one example.

B: The applications are – appear to be just utterly mind-boggling for these nanotubes. I've never seen a discovery take off in quite the way that nanotubes has. I mean, just from the get-go, you know, the interest was worldwide, and since then they've found potential applications from computing to fibers to, maybe—to all sorts of applications—electronics. It's amazing how versatile this material appears to be. We'll be hearing a lot about nanotubes.

S: Very interesting. Well, it is now time to bring on our guest.

Interview with Massimo Pigliucci (16:22)

S: With us this week is Dr. Massimo Pigliucci, who we simply call "our friend Massimo".

P: (laughs)

S: Massimo is Associate Professor of Evolutionary Biology at SUNY Stony Brook in Long Island. He has published over 70 technical papers in evolution and botany. He's written seven books. His most recent non-technical book is 'Denying Evolution'. He's the author of a column in 'Skeptical Inquirer' magazine called "Thinking About Science", and he's a frequent contributor not only to 'Skeptical Inquirer' but also 'Skeptic', 'Free Inquiry', 'Philosophy Now', and 'Philosopher's Magazine'. He has a doctorate in genetics from the University of Ferrarra in Italy, a PhD in botany from the University of Connecticut, and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Welcome to the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, Massimo.

M: Thank you for having me. That list always sounds a little bit embarrassing.

(laughter)

S: Yeah, it always is embarrassing to hear somebody else read your own CV.

B: I wish i had such a list.

P: It's daunting, yes.

S: Thank you for being on our show this week. We appreciate it.

M: My pleasure.

S: So, i'm sure you've been following, in the news over the past couple of weeks, the recent activity of the – our friends, the Intelligent Design crew –

M: Yes, indeed.

S: – in Kansas City. We just got done talking about the Smithsonian Institute debacle, which, if you hadn't heard, they backed off from cosponsoring the Discovery Institute film.

M: Right. See, sometimes it works.

S: Sometimes it does work.

P: Amen.

S: And, hopefully, people, you know, like the director of the Smithsonian, will think twice before, you know, falling for the Discovery Institute's coy offers in the future. So, what have you been doing recently, in terms of investigating or writing about the Intelligent Design crew?

M: Well, one thing that i've not been doing is to go to Kansas for those scam hearings that they organized with the local Board of Education.

S: Were you invited?

M: Yes, i was actually invited, and i followed the advice of Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education, more or less politely responding that i was – it wouldn't be any for any scientists to participate.

P: So, Massimo, you agree with the basic, what i've been reading, in that the scientific community is really refraining from speaking at that – at those hearings? You agree with that?

M: Right. I agree, and that's actually a change of heart for me, because in the past i've been involved in direct debates with Creationists and Intelligent Design proponents and so on and so forth. Now, under certain circumstances, those debates are actually fun, i guess, and may have a purpose, depending on the venue and the format and so on. But, definitely, in front of a school board, it's not – it doesn't seem like a good idea, because it really, in that case, does provide the other side with some legitimacy that they, frankly, don't deserve.

S: But do you – critics have said – critics of the decision of Eugenie Scott, and you, obviously, and of scientists she advised, to boycott those hearings, have said that they already have legitimacy by the mere fact that they're before a school board, and therefore shouldn't the mainstream scientific position be represented? What do you say about that?

M: Well, it depends on – i think, when we're talking about legitimacy, it depends on who bestows